Estonian Road Network and Road Management

• Main Author: Andrus Aavik
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: RTU Press 2006-03-01
• Series: The Baltic Journal of Road and Bridge Engineering
• Subjects: road network; pavement types; road management; maintenance; financing; road condition; roughness; distresses; bearing capacity; rutting; planning
• Online Access: https://bjrbe-journals.rtu.lv/article/view/3880

Estonian public road network is one of the densest in the Baltic and Nordic countries with the 52,8 % of paved state roads. Also it is specific in the sense of the organisation of road management the maintenance of which is implemented partly by private contractors (in 10 counties from 15) and by the state (in 5 counties). The competition between different contractors and the state will help control the growth of maintenance costs. Financing the road management has been improved during the past few years considerably: from 47,9 m euros in 1999 up to 125,7 m euros in 2004. It has caused the improvement of the condition of main roads of the state road network. At the same time the financing conditions set up by some institutions have led to the deterioration of basic and secondary roads. Despite the annual growth of the budget of the Estonian Road Administration, not enough finances are allocated for the repair and construction of state roads. For the construction, repair and maintenance of state roads 79,5 m euros were used in 2004 but the need was about 138 m according to the Estonian Pavement Management System. Therefore we cannot expect a rapid improvement of the conditions of Estonian state road network and still a lot of efforts is to be spent to keep the current condition of the state road network.